Search form

News

Carrier paths for Ontario’s PhD graduates

A new study by Linda Jonker from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) revealed that slightly under a third of Ontario’s PhD graduates from 2009 are working as full-time tenure or tenure-track professors at a university. Another 21% are working as researchers, lecturers, college instructors and administrators while 35% are employed outside the academia in different economic sectors. The researcher could not find employment information for the other 15%.

According to the author, over half of Ontario’s PhD graduates earned their degree in a STEM – (science, technology, engineering and math) related discipline, and thus, they are more likely to be employed outside of academia compared to humanities, social sciences and business graduates.

Almost half of Ontario’s doctoral graduates from 2009 are working in Ontario, while the other half is shared equally by graduates working “elsewhere in Canada,” “the United States,” and “in another country.”

Research-intensive universities in Ontario have been more successful in producing PhD graduates that are currently working as university professors at some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

The study follows public concern regarding the over expansion of PhD capacity. In the past ten years, the Ontario Government has shown its commitment for creating a highly skilled labour force that is needed to respond to the challenges of today and the future knowledge-based economy.